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PLANNING AND BUILDING

DEVELOPMENT

MANAGEMENT

Development Application Management System

Building Plans: Electronic Submission Process and Requirements

From 1 January 2015 the City of Cape Town’s Planning & Building

Development Management Department requires that all building plans

seeking approval for building work prepared /drawn with electronic

devices must be submitted electronically on a flash drive at the district

office counters.

This document specifies the process and requirements for electronic building plan submissions.

Online submission will become available during the second quarter of 2015. Guidelines and

protocols dealing with these submissions will be made known closer to the time. The use of flash

drives can then be phased out as applications and dealing with submissions and subsequent

correspondence and approvals can be done through the City’s e-portal directly with clients.

Building Plan Submissions

Requirements for Electronic Plans

All electronic documents & plans / drawings submitted must comply with the following

requirements.

1. Submission Process

The submission process is as follows:

1.1 Zoning and other Clearances must be obtained from the different sections

responsible and must be logged on the CRM system, prior to the submission of

Building Plans. A Service Request Number/s or Service Ticket/s will be provided

as reference. These are linked to provide a history of services transactions

and information provided to clients per property.

1.2 Applicant Submits Application on a flash drive as per requirements listed.

Submission is checked for completeness.

Customer Interface creates a Clearance Request and submission

documents, which includes the Building Plan. Documents are

uploaded to CRM.

The flash drive is handed back to client.

The clearance request is work-flowed to the relevant Land Use Planner

or Land Use Plans Examiner for checking and to provide zoning and

other clearances.

Customer receives a CRM Service Request Number on his/her phone.

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1.3 If the plan is cleared, the plan is submitted (See Section 2 hereunder for

document requirements)

Case is created, invoice issued, payment made and verified and

applicant issued with application CRM and Case Number.

2. Submission Requirements

2.1 Document Format

2.1.1 “Portable Document Format” (PDFA or PDFE as), also known as Adobe

Acrobat (version 10 or higher) on a Flash Drive. The flash drive will be

given back to applicant after upload of documentation and plan in into

CRM. Scanned or “image” PDFs will only be accepted for documents and

plans where there is no other way of producing the document.

2.1.2 Any plans submitted that are not in PDFA or PDFE format will not be

accepted.

2.1.3 All submission documents, construction plans, product approvals, project

manuals and energy calculations shall be submitted electronically in PDF

format.

2.1.4 No e-mail or fax submissions will be considered.

Plans larger that 500 m2 must be in PDFE format (vector format) as it is much smaller in size than

PDFA files.

These vector based PDF’s (or PDFEs) can be scaled by any amount without any

degrading of image quality. It allows the plans to be reviewed in a much higher level of

clarity on a computer screen.

A PDFE Plan clearly shows the different layers on the left under the Layers indicator. A

PDFE document displays proposed work in layered themes. See example under 2.3.3.

2.2 Additional Requirements

1. Signatures on plans (i.e. affected neighbours’ signatures for departures) and

other legal documentation that contains signatures must preferably be the

original signed document.

2. Electronic signatures by Architects, Owners and on Home Owners Association

/Body Corporate endorsements are accepted as long as it can be

authenticated and verified as electronically signed by that person. See

Requirements for Electronically Signed Documents hereunder.

Requirements for Electronically Signed Documents

When submitting electronically signed documents, it is important that the documents comply

with the following requirements to ensure that recipients can:

Verify document authenticity – confirming the identity of each person who signed

the document.

Verify document integrity – confirming that the document has not been altered in

transit.

This can be obtained by using Adobe Reader XI or Adobe Echo Sign.

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2.2 Building Plan Submissions: Folder & File Structure

For ease of importing plans with the necessary application documents into our system,

please use the following Folder Name for building plan submissions.

Please note: The folder name must indicate what the application is about (in this case a

Building Plan Application) plus the Erf Number and the Area (Erf # plus Suburb/Allotment).

Example: Building Plan Erf 3459 Cape Town

Files/Documents in the Building Plan Application Folder

2.3 Electronic Requirements for Plans

2.3.1 Scanned Plans & Documents (PDF Images)

a) Only one page plans and documentation that cannot be submitted as either

PDFA or PDFE can be submitted as scanned images (PDF images) provided

they are less than 3MB in size.

b) Quality of PDF images must be such that all lines, points and fine print must be

clearly legible.

2.3.2 PDFA for the Building Plan (only for plans under 500 m2).

c) PDFA plans to be less than 5Mb in size.

d) All plans to be separate documents/files clearly named as follows:

Building Plan Including Fire Protection Plan(document). This includes the

following as pages -

Site Plan,

Floor Plan,

Elevations

Sections

Specifications

Roofing Plan and

Drainage Plan

Storm water

Fire Protection Plan

Other

Mechanical Ventilation Plan (document)

Electrical Plan (document)

Structural Engineering Plan (document)

Landscape Plan

Other

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Example of a PDFA Building Plan Document consisting of multiple pages

under Page Thumbnails

2.3.3 PDFE document (required for plans over 500 m2 due to size) for Building Plan

(includes all plans as clearly named layers where applicable in one

document/file as indicated hereunder. ISO CAD Layer Naming Convention can

be used but need to represent these layers.

Site Plan (base plan)

Building Plan

Layout Plan

Roofing Plan

Drainage Plan

Fire Protection Plan

Mechanical Ventilation Plan

Electrical Plan

Structural Engineering Plan

Other layers as required

For multiple floors, each floor can be treated as a page under Page

Thumbnails including the layers.

Example of a PDFE Plan with required layers (naming conventions to be according to

ISO CAD Layer Naming Convention but must represent these layers).

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2.4 Document Protocols

2.4.1 Page, File Orientation, Layout, Security, etc.

a) Orientation: All plan sheets shall be properly oriented so that the top of the

page is always at the top of the monitor/screen.

(a) Design professionals are required to set the scale of drawings in the

Measuring Preferences (2D and 3D where applicable) in Adobe so that

electronic measurements can be made accurately with the Adobe

Measuring Tool. All lines and fonts must be readable when printed or

photocopied.

PDFA and scanned PDFs to be 1:100 scale or else contain a scale bar to

allow for accurate measurements.

(b) The security options selected by the design professional shall allow officials

to mark up digital documents, create notes, and to insert/remove sheets

to create a complete set of plans.

When creating a PDF file please ensure that the correct settings are chosen for

Document Properties regarding PDF Description, Security and Custom Document

Properties.

3.0 Amendments

3.1 Amendment Process

a) Applicants will be notified of required amendments per SMS or e-mail and

must collect the Amendments Requested at the relevant office.

b) The amendments requested letter from the City will be loaded upon

presentation by the client onto the client’s flash drive under a folder

marked “Amendments Requested”. Clients must provide a flash drive for

this to be loaded thereon.

c) Amendments completed to plans must be indicated in a folder on the

flash drive marked “Amendments Submitted” and resubmitted to the

relevant District office of the City of Cape Town Building Development

Management Services.

3.2 Amendment Requirements

a) The full set of plans must be included in the Amendments Submitted folder.

This is necessary for approval and electronic stamping of the plans.

b) Amendments made must be clearly indicated on the Amendment plans.

c) It is necessary for all amendments submitted to be in the same format as

the original plan submission (PDFA or PDFE).

d) Amendments/Revisions to the original building plan could be indicated by

clouding and deltas, with a narrative in the title box (through comments

and mark-ups).

e) “Counter amendments” (minor amendments required) can be made at

the District Office if the design professional do that on his/her own

electronic device (laptop/tablet) so that these changes can be displayed

under his/her name in the PDF document or file (see d)).

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4.0 Approval

4.1 Approval Process

a) Applicants will be informed via SMS and/or e-mail when approved plans are ready for

collection.

b) Electronic building plans are stamped electronically with the necessary information

and signatures upon approval.

c) This “stamp” is an image on each sheet of the latest building plans that indicates the

plans have been reviewed for compliance according to the National Building

Regulations.

d) Approved plans will be uploaded to the applicant/client’s flash drive upon

presentation at the counter.

e) Applicants to please ensure that -

i. All the necessary is on the flash drive

ii. Documentation and plans can be opened before leaving the office and

iii. All required sheets / pages of a Building Plan contain a stamp.

4.2 Approval Requirements

a) The applicant needs to present a flash drive to receive the approved building plan

and documentation. If the applicant or owner requires a hard/paper copy of the

plan, normal tariffs for copies of plans apply.

b) The applicant must print a set of approved plans for use on the building site as per

NBR requirements where the Building Inspector will verify it against his/her approved

copy and the unique approval number and date of approval contained in the

stamp.

5.0 Refusals

Refusals will be treated the same than for approvals. The only difference is that there

would not be a stamp on the building plan, only the decision document.

Communication Channels

Please visit the website below to view latest newsletters on the topic:

http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Planningportal/Pages/default.aspx

Link to ISO CAD Layer Convention (ISO 13567) compliance guidelines

http://info.cadcam.org/blog/topic/iso-13567-layer-format

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Annexure A

BUILDING PLAN APPLICATION SUBMISSION CHECKLIST & PROTOCOL

Application Type

Building

Plan

Minor

Work Permit

General Requirements

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Scrutiny Fees √ √ √

BDM Application Forms √ √ √

SANS 10400-A FORMS √

Signature Requirements met √ √ √

Cape Town Zoning Scheme requirements ito ground levels, height

restrictions and overlay zones

√

Land Surveyor’s Certificate (where applicable)

Title Deed (where applicable) √ √

SG Diagram (where applicable)

Integrated Waste Management Plan (for Demolition Permits) √

Clearances

Land Use Management Clearance √ √ √

Fire Clearance √

Environmental Clearance √

Heritage Clearance √

Roads Clearance

Transportation Clearance

Plans and Specifications

1 x Hard Copy to be submitted (if drawn by hand)

Site Plan with all requirements √ √ √

Layout Drawings with all requirements (where applicable) √ √

Drainage Installation Drawing with all requirements (where

applicable)

√

Plans must be drawn to scale √ √

Fire Protection Plans √

General structural arrangement drawings & structural details √ √

Colouring of Plans (as per NBR requirements √ √

Full Constructional Specifications relevant to the application √ √